Sunday’s Blessing – 05/24/2026 – Pentecost Sunday: The Holy Spirit Coming with Power and the Birthday of the Church

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/24/2026 – Pentecost Sunday: The Holy Spirit Coming with Power and the Birthday of the Church

I love celebrating birthdays. I’m not sure when that started, but I remember as a child my birthday was the one day where it was all about me. Being the youngest of five, very few days (at least from my perspective) were about me. My siblings probably have a different opinion. My mom would always prepare the same cake every year. It was a four-tier yellow cake with chocolate icing. The “birthday boy” would always get the top tier which was about the size of a cupcake.

There was usually a party with the neighborhood kids in attendance. Since my birthday is in August, the festivities were usually held outside in the front yard. I try to keep track of birthdays of those around me: work, church, friends, etc. Now that social media can’t let you forget, it’s a little easier.

But how often have we celebrated the birthday of the Church? We mark the birth of Christ with Advent (Christmas), the death of Christ with Easter, and much is said about the return of Christ at the second coming. But I can’t recall any mention of the birthday of the Church. Pentecost was mostly cubby-holed into a doctrinal discussion about tongues. Since most evangelicals avoid the topic Pentecost was also pushed aside as irrelevant. This is very sad. This event is one that Jesus spent a lot of time publicizing and anticipating right up to the moment He ascended to heaven. The sending of the Holy Spirit is a critical part of God’s plan to redeem mankind. Yet we sweep it under the rug and diminish the role the Holy Spirit plays in the life of the Believer.

Regardless of your religious tradition, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then you need to understand all that has been provided to you in the Holy Spirit. Maybe I will share more specific in the coming weeks as we enter into what is referred to as “Ordinary Time” by the liturgical church. There is nothing “ordinary” about any day we get to fellowship with our Creator, emulate our Savior, and live our life with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Today’s Blessing:

Receive the promise given to Mary for yourself, for the Christian has the same promise:

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. Luke 1:35 (ESV)

Instead of a “baby” being born it will be the rebirth of your spirit by the Holy Spirit, making you a Son/Daughter of God.

Instead of “overshadowing” you, the Holy Spirit will dwell IN you.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (ESV)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/17/2026 - 7th Sunday of Easter: The Prayer of Jesus (John 17) – Theme of Unity and Love, Preparing for Pentecost

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/17/2026 - 7th Sunday of Easter: The Prayer of Jesus (John 17) – Theme of Unity and Love, Preparing for Pentecost

This past Thursday, May 14, was Ascension Day. It’s when we remember that Jesus went to Heaven in bodily form to be seated at the right hand of the Father, and there make intercession for us continually. Once there, the plan was put in motion for the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to come to earth with a new mission: to indwell the Believers so they could experience the presence of God in a tangible way. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, which is just one more week from today.

Jesus instructed His followers to return to the upper room when His disciples had celebrated Passover just before His crucifixion. They followed His instructions, not really knowing what to expect. But by now, they had learned to trust the words Jesus spoke to them. They had seen the scars from the crucifixion in the hands and feet and side of a real human walking around after they had watched Him die just days before. His message of unity and love rang more clearly in their ears. In one more week they would experience the fullness of what Jesus meant when He told them, “I will send another comforter, one just like me, who will live in you forever.”

How confusing those words must have sounded. But they could not have sounded any more strange than, “Tear this temple down and in three days it will be restored.” His resurrection helped that make sense. They had watched Him ascend into the clouds as Jesus bid them farewell, but giving them hope of Someone else to come and help them. After all of this, they did not ask the same questions. They simply obeyed.

Now for today’s blessing:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:6-11 (ESV)

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/08/2025 – Pentecost Sunday

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/08/2025 – Pentecost Sunday

One of the most important aspects of our salvation is when Jesus fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit to the earth to fill those who would become identified with Christ through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the Father’s right hand. This is the process of salvation described by Paul in Ephesians 1 & 2. Before Jesus ascended to take His position of authority next to the Father, He promised to send “another” comforter. This word “another” means one of the same kind. Jesus explained that He had been “with” them, but the One coming later would live “in” them, to empower them to be witnesses of all they had seen and heard.

For many years, I had missed one vital part of this process. Most “plans” of salvation I had heard placed the onus of being saved on the individual. It included things like, “if you believe and confess, you would be saved,” or “be baptized for the remission of sin,” or … There are many more. While these are verses in the Bible, they do not encapsulate the salvation experience. The end result of salvation is to be “in Christ.” I have only found one way for this to occur: the Holy Spirit must baptize us into Christ. Who does He baptize? Those who have identified with Christ in all of the aspects mention by Paul: the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating of Jesus.

Pentecost is not an “experience” for the believer. It was an “event” in the history of God’s saving of humans on earth from their sin and restoring fellowship with the Father which was lost because of sin. There is no salvation without Pentecost (the sending of the Holy Spirit to the earth). The Holy Spirit, or paraclete (I’ve heard described as “one who walks along side together with”), would be sent to help us. He would lead us into salvation by showing us the love of the Father. He would then baptize us into Christ. And finally, the Holy Spirit would dwell in us to empower us to be witnesses of this “love of the Father” to our world.

It's important for us to remember these things. That’s why I am enjoying learning about liturgy; not as a way of expressing my Christianity, but to strengthen my  Christian experience by constantly being reminded of why God did all He did to provide a way back into complete fellowship with Him.

Now for today’s blessing:

May you encounter the Holy Spirit in every way

So you may know, completely, the love of the Father

Which is the only reason Jesus came – to show us the Father

So you could be restored into full fellowship with Him 

My you learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit – the inward witness

So you can share outwardly all that He has brought about in you

By baptizing you into Christ, guiding you into the Truth about the Father

So you could receive all He has provided for you in the New Covenant

May this Pentecost Sunday become a time of revelation

May the Holy Spirit bring you to full understanding of why He came

So you would be able to live in the perpetual Sabbath Rest

Which is found in Jesus Christ, your Lord

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/01/2025 – The Sunday Between Ascension and Pentecost

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/01/2025 – The Sunday Between Ascension and Pentecost

There is not a lot of information in scripture about the time between when Jesus ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father and when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill believers, giving them boldness to testify of the love of God brought through the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating of Christ. We know the disciples and others went to the upper room where Jesus had what is now referred to as The Last Supper.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

Acts 1:4-8 (ESV)

For years, I tried to live the Christian life without knowledge or the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It was not part of the teaching in the churches of my youth. I now understand more fully the work of the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus sending the Holy Spirit was part of our redemption.

So here we are, in the ten days between the Ascension (Jesus going up) and Pentecost (the Holy Spirit coming down). The last two acts of Jesus which completed our salvation were Him being seated on the Father’s right hand (where we are positionally with Christ after we are saved) and Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to inhabit the Believer once the Spirit baptizes us into Christ (salvation). God provided everything for us through Christ so we could be restored into fellowship with Him, our Creator.

Now for today’s blessing:

May you learn to live from the position of being seated with Christ

So you may be able to trust the Father for every aspect of your life

So you may know the true nature and character of the Father

And live a life full enough to bless other along the way

May you live yielded to the Spirit’s presence inside you

So you may be led by the Spirit in every way

So you may be empowered to be a witness of the hope that is in you

And always have something to give to others who need hope